Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Appropriate % on chapter pre-tests (math/algebra)?

Bingo.

I think it's a bad idea, too.

It led my DD to completely TUNE OUT of most Algebra 1.

Seriously-- she engaged in such procrastination in BOTH courses that she literally completed a full year in what amounted to about 2 weeks of more-or-less intensive (read, 3-4 hr daily) study, and earned 90-100% on everything.

I wouldn't say that her pre-algebra foundation had been all that strong going into 6th grade math, truthfully. She stopped doing Singapore in roughly 3rd grade, and had done Calvert for most of 3rd/4th, then Prentice Hall courses 1 and 2. Well, part of each. It was an odd year.

The only material that she was weak on in that body was manipulating fractions, which she knew conceptually, but had trouble with in terms of accuracy because she wasn't writing things down.

She seriously coasted until Algebra II, which then proceeded to ROUNDLY kick her butt because she hadn't developed any real resilience or study skills.

I don't even know what pre-algebra is, actually. I never had anything called that. It's possible that 7th grade math might have encompassed what they call pre-algebra now, or, come to think of it, it may have been an 8th grade class in junior high but I went to a church school in 8th grade and missed it. I know we started with algebra in 9th grade.

I guess it didn't hurt me any.

I don't think they have a class called pre-algebra in DS's middle school or high school, either. A rose by any other name....

I suspect Pre-Algebra is a name and that actual curriculum varies from state to state and school district to school district. As Val mentioned, back when I was in school the "Pre-Algebra" class was specifically for the students who (in 9th grade) weren't ready to take Algebra. In my kids' school, Pre-Algebra was a good prep for Algebra I, and really didn't contain any rehash of things already covered. The repetition in our school seems to occur more with the 5th/6th/7th grade math - - and I think this is true for much of our school district, which is why it's easy for gifted kids to skip 6th/7th grade math (which is typically what is done) and move on into pre-Algebra right after the 5th grade math course.

polarbear

I'm not sure I understood correctly --- do you mean that the upper 50% of the class is considered to be GT?

If so, they've bundled a lot of average students into their GT group and it's not really surprising (to me at least) that a lot of them are struggling. Students with solidly average ability shouldn't be taking algebra until much later than 7th grade.

That's a good point. I am trying to mostly stay out of it and let the school do their job so I haven't actually looked at the problems or check any of his assessments before or after the fact. According to DS, the pretest questions are similar to the questions on the end of chapter practice test and real test.

That's why I love this forum - it helps me clarify what I am thinking! I suppose my goal is to ensure that DS is always at the 99 percentile at the end of each course for that course.

Wow - 70% seems rather low to me!

Actually, DS already aced the Pre-algebra course and a national Algebra readiness assessment last year. This year he is enrolled in an online Algebra course arranged by the District office, who also provides a live instructor one day a week.

DS decided to implement a single skip to Pre-algebra last year rather than a double skip to Algebra. He wanted to make sure that he had a super strong foundation. So you may have an excellent point regarding the overlap. It makes sense that he is able to score mid-80's to mid-90's on the Algebra chapter pretests by extending what he learned last year in Pre-algebra.

However, I don't regret having DS take Pre-algebra last year because he is not as strong in Geometry and about 40% of his Pre-algebra course covered geometry and trigonometry topics. Of course, the trignometry topics were cursory and focused on sine, cosine, tangent, secant, cosecant, cotangent and basic real world applications.

It is a pretest. Presumably it is a lot harder after doing the study.

According to the Diagnostic Testing / Prescriptive Instruction model (DT-PI) discussed in the book "Developing Math Talent" and summarized at http://www.win.tue.nl/~wstomv/quotes/developing-math-talent.html , a student should take tests at progessively more difficult levels until he or she scores below the 85th percentile.